iTunes overhaul pushed back to November

Last month, we heard that Apple was planning to roll out a pretty big update for iTunes. That update was scheduled to land sometime this month, but with October ending tomorrow, it’s become pretty clear that the iTunes refresh probably won’t make it out the door before November arrives. Sure enough, Apple confirmed today that it has delayed this major iTunes update, and now the company is saying that it should be available before the end of next month.

Apple spokesperson Tom Neumayr confirmed the delay of the update to All Things D today, though sadly, he didn’t get too specific about why it was pushed back. “The new iTunes is taking longer than expected and we wanted to take a little extra time to get it right,” Neumayr said. “We look forward to releasing this new version of iTunes with its dramatically simpler and cleaner interface and seamless integration with iCloud before the end of November.”

There could be any number of reasons for this delay – including, as All Things D points out, Apple’s recent management shake up – but we’re tempted to take Apple at its word when it says that needs more time to iron out the kinks. Remember, Apple doesn’t have the best history with these iTunes updates after all. In any case, once the update does finally arrive, it will come sporting a bunch of new features, including the iCloud improvements Neumayr mentioned.

There are also improvements to the user interface and playlist creation to get excited about, as well as general boosts to performance. Sadly, the iTunes faithful will have to a wait a few more weeks before they can put this update through its paces, but it’s better for Apple push it back than release it on time with a bunch of bugs. Stay tuned, because we’ll probably hear more about this iTunes update as we draw closer to its yet-unknown November release date.